Rather than beat around the bush, I think I'll just come out and say what I'm thinking today. No clever homily, no quotes from Zen masters, and no veiled references.

I was feeling kind of sorry for myself this weekend. Since Friday, I've been trying to deal with a comment that Clay made here. I felt kind of trampled; for the last several weeks I've been trying to involve Clay in more of our activities, and encourage others to do the same. I think his merits outweigh his flaws, and I've told others as much. Despite our very different backgrounds and beliefs I genuinely like him. I still like him, even though I think he was out of line.

I was questioning myself about the incident, and generally griping. How should I have handled it? I have a right to make the rules on my own blog, right? Should I have just deleted the comment? Should I have really ripped him a new one? Should I have maintained a noble silence? WWBD? And, more importantly, should I let my blog take up this much of my brain power? Oh yeah - and my knee hurts too.

So I was moping a bit, mixed with seething. Ok, more than a bit. I was pretty much pouting, albeit quietly. Then I opened my Email. In it, was this:
Benjamin Meadows

That is my second cousin, Ben. His face made everything I was grouching about seem fairly trivial. It's not just that he is a damn cute relative of mine - although I do think his parents need to move to California and get him an agent - it is the clear enjoyment of the moment in his face that spoke to me. For him, there is nothing but making faces for his dad's camera. Just NOW. All my moping was about yesterday, or two days ago, or maybe longer, and it was all a fucking waste of time.

So I'm going to stop now. I'm going to soak my achey knee in a hot bath, and just be there with that. I'm going to let Clay be Clay, and be with that too.